Deuteronomy
Introduction
The term Deuteronomy means “Second Law.” This is what it is called because, in the Scriptures, it comes after all the laws found in the Books of Leviticus and Numbers. However, it was written before these books. It was the first attempt at unifying commands and customs to give Israel the law in which it would find life.
The first writing of Deuteronomy took place more than five hundred years after the encounter of Moses with God. The land of Canaan had been conquered and the kingdoms of David and Solomon had been established and then divided and weakened. The largest and the most prosperous province, situated to the north, and called the kingdom of Israel, had ceased to exist and, in a similar fate, was threatening the kingdom of Judah, the southern province, in the seventh century before Christ.
It was then that this law of the Lord became public. It revealed to the people the cause of their defeats and it offered them an opportunity for salvation. Forgotten in the temple during the persecution of Manasseh, its discovery in the year 622 B.C. (2 K 22) gave rise to Josiah’s reform.
In a fictitious way, the author attributes the warnings and the laws that are found in this book to Moses. He situates the events that we read about in the steppes of Moab, on the other side of the Jordan. It was then, shortly before his death, that Moses gave Israel the laws that could save it.
Moses and Deuteronomy
Deuteronomy was welcomed by the people of Israel and their shepherds as the word of God and the teaching of Moses, but the authors were priests and prophets who summarized in these pages the experience the Israelites had acquired throughout their history.
As happens in other books of the Scriptures, the authors of Deuteronomy placed on the lips of Moses the very discourses they themselves wanted to address to their people. In a fictitious way they imagine that, before his death, Moses foresaw the tragic fate awaiting his people. They attribute to Moses the warnings and the laws which could still save Israel. Deuteronomy, in fact, uses the preaching of the prophets concerning justice and love: it is the first effort ever made in the world to establish a responsible and fraternal society.
The Love of God and the Promised Land
Moses had demanded the conquest of the land of Canaan. The Israelites were already ruling the land and they were trying to look good among the powerful of the time. They were endowed with a central power, an army, temples, and a respected clergy. They were paying homage to their God, but in fact, they had gone back to being like other people.
Moses had spoken of serving the Lord alone. Now, Deuteronomy insistently reminds Israel that the Lord had loved them and had chosen them. Now, Israel is the people to whom the Lord had granted the Covenant and they should respond lovingly to God with all their hearts. See Deuteronomy 6:1.
Loving God, of course, but also loving their neighbors. The book seeks to strengthen the unity of the people and it shows how God’s love for his people is demanding that they establish a responsible and fraternal society.
The main divisions of the book are the following:
1. A retrospective look and a calling to attention: Chapters 1:1–4:43;
2. A synthesis of the events related in Exodus and Numbers: Chapters 4:44–11:32. The author insists on the importance of love to understand the law of the Lord;
3. Precepts that correct and revise the previous legislations: Chapters 12–28;
4. An epilogue gathering texts of an exhortative nature: Chapters 29–34. The book concludes with the death of Moses and the new leadership of Joshua.
1.6 Each nation has its laws, the fruit of a people’s long experience and the reflection of their leaders. The laws of Israel were formed in the same way, but the experience of Israel was different from that of any other nation.
Thus, as an introduction to the laws of Israel, the authors of Deuteronomy placed on Moses’ lips a long speech in which Israel is reminded of that first experience. These first chapters do not repeat the departure from Egypt itself, but deal with the events in the desert and especially with what happened in Kadesh, the oasis in the southern part of Palestine, where the Israelites remained for “forty years.”
The first chapter recalls the establishment of judges: Moses being the first legislator of his people, those who came after him always referred to his authority. This chapter also deals with the rebellion at Kadesh: at the outset of their history Israel found out how costly it was to oppose God’s wise guidance.
Chapters 3 and 4 tell about the arrival in the Promised Land: It was the Lord who brought them there and they must pay attention to him if they wish to continue to live freely on the land.
4.1 Moses draws a lesson from past experience to convince us to observe God’s law. He invites us to keep our eyes open: You who have been faithful to the Lord, your God, are all alive today (v. 4) while the others are dead. In the midst of the many “dead” who fret and fight among themselves in the world, the believer is alive. And Moses also says: Is there a nation whose norms and laws are as just as this law? (v. 8).
Yet, there are times in life in which temptations are strong and it seems that, if we were to abandon the divine order, we would find happiness; but happiness is found through God’s law and it does not require our approval: Do not add anything nor take anything away (v. 2).
Is there a nation whose gods are as near to it as the Lord? (v. 7). The gods are false friends and projections of our imagination: we play with them and try to win them over so that our plans may be achieved. But God is present in all of his mystery, present and yet beyond reach. Although we do not see him, we recognize him with all certitude and whenever he comes close to us, he leaves us secure.
The whole Scripture insists on the reality and the historical value of such interventions. Do not forget these things which your own eyes have seen (v. 9). The story of Moses was indeed written centuries later and many episodes of the Israelites’ wandering through the desert became legends. But legends about the manna, the cloud and the crossing of the sea would not have arisen if the Israelite community had not experienced God’s providence and his strong hand on many occasions. Israel discovered God day by day as a father accompanying his son (Dt 1:31).
RELIGION AND FAITH
These two terms constantly appear when we speak of our relationship with God. We must know, however, what we mean by “religion” and what we say when we speak of faith.
People of ancient nations were “religious” just as many are today: they believe that the world they inhabit is the work of a Creator-God. That is why we find in all the religions of antiquity, as in the first pages of the Scriptures, accounts of creation, which explain the origin of the world and humankind. Since the Creator is the author of creation, only he can give the rules for its functioning: all the religions have naturally included in their accounts prescriptions of morality. The God of religion (or gods, since polytheism is widespread) is served by clergy which, in the name of the people, thanks him for the good things he has given to humans and begs him to renew these benefits during the coming year. Thus the religious feasts consist, first and above all, of thanksgiving and firstfruits, as we see in the ritual texts of the Old Testament. Religion is by nature conservative since it assures good order in the world; it is without “hope”: we have nothing fresh to hope for, but only to expect that tomorrow like today, will give us what we need in this world.
On opening the Scriptures, in making our “profession of faith” we recognize that we, too, are a religious people; do we not say: “I believe in the all-powerful God, Creator of heaven and earth?” But this religion we profess has been totally transfigured by faith: God, the Creator has revealed himself to the people of Israel, chosen from all eternity to be his “witness among the nations.” Throughout the centuries God has revealed himself in the history of Israel: he leads his people as a father guides his child (Dt 1:31), towards a plenitude that a human being can neither conceive nor imagine (Eph 1:15-23; 3:14-21; Col 1:9-14, 25-27).
God has made himself known as he is; he draws us towards a communion of eternal love with him (Jn 17:21). That is why hope, at least as defined by Paul (Rom 8:24-25), is at the very heart of our faith; and if our thanksgiving rises continually towards God for the good things received from him, it rises still more, infinitely more, towards this Father who has prepared us to receive our share in the inheritance of the saints in his kingdom of light, towards him “who has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Col 1:13).
10. Moses remembers the experience of Sinai (also called Mount Horeb) because faith is rooted in experience. When Paul tries to confirm in their faith Christians who are tempted to lose their way, he will remind them of the mystical experience they had when they entered the Church (Gal 3:1; Heb 12:18).
You did not see any figure; you only heard a voice (v. 12). Note the contrast between seeing and hearing, between false worship and authentic faith.
False cults create their own gods (ancient or modern ones, such as a leader or an ideology) in accordance with their own way of seeing and understanding the meaning of existence. People paint their own gods and fabricate their own truth according to their own mind which notices only what is visible, immediately effective, what can be enjoyed and used.
But true faith is rooted in the word heard: see Romans 10:14-17. Happy are those who believe though they have not seen! We believe in a truth which the people of God, the Church transmits to us. For a Christian, no “particular revelation,” no “divine message” received by anyone, has any value if it is not first in complete harmony and in total dependence on the word of God as well as on the Church which God has chosen to be a witness and guarantor of his word (Acts 10:41).
Do not make an idol or a god carved in the form of a man or of a woman (v. 16). We are back to the ban on making any image of God. See the commentary on Exodus 20:4. Whether it be the image of some created force (like the sun) or the picture of some leader or the symbol of some group (homeland, party…) nothing that is created can be considered divine. It is also forbidden to make images of God because he is Holy, that is, he is not like anything that we can think of or imagine.
Do not prostrate yourselves to adore and serve them as gods (v. 19). Obviously, today, few speak of adoring anything or anyone. Yet adoring is the same as surrendering oneself. Many persons serve political gods or the alienating idols of consumerism.
25. These lines remind us of the story of the prodigal son (Lk 15). Because Israel was the chosen people, they had a greater responsibility. Their land was a gift from God and they would lose it if they abandoned him. The Israelites were living according to the First Covenant on Sinai. They expected material gifts, prosperity, lands, and peace from God. The Lord did not show them any other punishment than an eventual exile: leaving this marvelous land. But there was also the promise: there you will look for the Lord, your God (v. 29).
32. Never has there been any deed as tremendous as those done for you (v. 34). See the commentary on verse 9.
Many people think that what Scripture mainly teaches is “to believe in God.” This expression leads itself to much confusion. Biblical faith is not in believing that God exists, or that God is powerful, or that God can help us. Instead, what is important is that God chose Israel for a unique mission in the world, that God is the only God and that Israel was different from all the other nations.
41. Here begins the second “discourse of Moses.” In Chapter 5:1-22, the Decalogue (the ten commandments) is presented for a second time and in a way very similar to what is in Exodus 20:2.
5:23-31. God wants to find someone who could appear before him in the name of all the people. The glory of Moses consisted in his being a kind of mediator or representative of Israel.
5:33. The purpose of God’s law is to make us happy. In that, God’s fatherly love is revealed.
6.1 Listen, Israel: the Lord, our God, is One Lord (v. 4). These verses are the creed of the Jews: which they recite every day. Jesus alludes to this text when they question him about the most important command. See Mark 12:28 and its commentary.
You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart (v. 5). The love of God cannot be totally unselfish. Israel knew that by responding to the love of God who chose them, they were on the right path and God would reward them with peace and material prosperity.
Engrave on your heart the commandments (v. 6): keep them present in your mind to help you organize your thinking and to be able to judge everything according to these standards.
Repeat them over and over to your children (v. 7): knowing that you are responsible for their faith.
Brand them on your hand (v. 8) or, let them guide your actions.
Keep them always before your eyes (v. 8) so that you will not remember them when it is too late, when all you can do is moan over your mistakes.
Engrave them on your doorposts and on your city gates (v. 9), or let them guide your economic and social life.
The Lord is a jealous God (v. 15)—see Exodus 20:5. This expression shocks many people. But could there be true love without a certain kind of jealousy, not that which is always afraid of the infidelity of the loved one? This expression “jealous God” reveals in a poor and primitive language, an essential trait of our God who is so mysterious. He is not only Love, as many like to say, he is also a lover. It is not enough to speak of God who loves all of us in a vision of universal goodness: he chooses those whom he loves and each becomes all for him.
This expression already tells us what will cause the wonderment of Paul when he will speak of predestination, that is, the love of God who chose us even before the creation of the world (Rom 8:31-39; Eph 1:1). To speak of his jealousy is to affirm that he cannot renounce the reciprocal love and fidelity that he expects from his loved ones. The history of Israel will manifest this jealousy of God through the terrible trials he sends to his people: even the most bitter trials we are to endure in this life are nothing in comparison with what he is creating in us.
So when you have eaten and have been satisfied, do not forget the Lord (vv. 11-12). All of modern civilization seems to have forgotten this. People feel in command of science, technology, and the world. More serious still: many are satisfied with enjoying the universe while losing themselves.
20. The Israelites celebrated the Passover every year. Every family observed the rites of that feast in a religious banquet. When they were gathered around the table one of the children would ask the father: “Father, what are we about to do?” Then, the father would answer: “Our ancestors were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt (v. 21)…” We find this creed, the proclamation of the faith of Israel in the lines recited. It is not enough for the Israelites to “believe that there is a God,” they have to recall God’s favors in the past in order to thank him.
So, too, Christians always look to the past to recall God’s favors toward them and toward all humankind. The heart of prayer in the church is the Mass wherein we thank God for the salvation of the world through the death and resurrection of Christ.
The material promises made to Israel are an image of God’s promises to the Church which no longer hopes for crops and sheep, but instead for more believers and their growth in Christ.
8.1 Verses 1-6 show the meaning of the wandering in the desert: a time of testing for Israel. Israel was poor and yet God’s help was never lacking.
He gave you manna to eat, to show you that one does not live on bread alone (v. 3), but that everything coming from the mouth of God is life for God’s children. The manna they were given was the sign of another food needed by all and which comes from the mouth of God: his word (see commentary on Ex 16:16).
9.6 Israel is a rebellious people. This is the way we translate the biblical expression: “stiff-necked people,” or difficult to lead. Is this only a reproach? From the very beginning, Israel was an independent people, with a passion for freedom; they never worshiped their leaders but were always arguing and fighting with everyone, including their God. The parable of the prodigal son helps us to understand why God so loved these people, and why, even now, they continue to be the “firstborn” of God among all the nations of the earth.
10.12 Here, the two commandments which Jesus combined into one are related.
Love God and serve him with all your heart and with all your soul. A love which is the response to God’s love: “Because the Lord bound himself to your fathers. He loved them, and then, he loved you.” Pay attention to the sequence: God loves first and chooses; then we respond to his love and try to express it by our obedience. God’s mercy comes first, and as Paul will remind us, no one can boast of merits and rights before God (Rom 3:20-24).
Purify your hearts (v. 16). This text says more precisely: “Circumcise your hearts” (see Gen 17).
The orphan, the widow, the stranger (v. 18). Responding to God’s love means loving those who are helpless. In that period, the needy were individuals in a society without well-defined social classes. But, in today’s world, there are entire classes and nations in the situation of the widow, the orphan and the alien of those days.
Today, this love for the forsaken often requires being committed to the lower classes of society. God will render justice to them (v. 18). If we do not know spontaneously how to achieve this justice with the means taught in the Gospel, God will bring justice in a more radical way.
11.1 “To you who saw the miracles, I say: remember.” The same lessons are repeated. Israel will continue safely in the land if future generations do not forget what the Lord did for their ancestors. Thus, those who saw God’s marvelous deeds have the obligation to teach them to their children.
Faith is not as much rooted in doctrine than in the discovery of God’s liberating interventions. We see him in our life, in the life of a Christian community, which transforms those who are in contact with it.
At whatever time, the way for parents to educate their children in the faith is to share their own religious experience with them and to show them how they found the living God. Faith is passed on from one person to another.
10. Deuteronomy mentions several times the land flowing with milk and honey (v. 9). This means usually in the Scriptures a blessed country. The present paragraph, however, gives it a different meaning. In the land of Egypt, people work and harvest. In Israel instead, the flocks depend on grass, and on rain, which is given by God; and it is the same for honey. So life in Israel will always depend on divine generosity and people’s faithfulness to the covenant.
26. Here we have a reference to the Covenant held by Joshua (Jos 8:30).
12.1 In Chapter 12 we have the beginning of the laws which must govern Israel if they are to really become God’s people.
The first law directs them to destroy the pagans’ sacred places. These were places set on hilltops in the middle of the woods. There a pole was placed between vertical stones.
The second prescription deals with having no other temple than the one in Jerusalem. Attempting to counter abuses coming from the multiplication of cultic places, the Jewish priests managed to achieve religious unity around the Jerusalem temple. This unification of the cult was part of King Josiah’s great project: to reunite the ancient kingdom of the north to the kingdom of Judah (1 K 23:8-9).
Why did God want only one temple? Apparently for the same reasons that he wanted to make his promises to only one family of kings, David’s family. This is because, first Israel and then the Church, must be a sign of unity in the world. If it is a fact that people can address God at any time and in any way their faith dictates to them, they do. God’s chosen people, however, have to respect God’s will that they be only one people serving him in his only House, his Church.
13. Chapter 12:13-19 establishes the distinction between killing animals to offer them in sacrifice, which was only allowed in the Jerusalem temple, and killing them to use the meat, which can be done in any place.
From 12:29 to 13:19: a new warning against the danger of idolatry. You will purge the evil from your midst (13:6). In 1 Corinthians 5:13, Paul will recall these words when he asks the Christian community to expel those who give bad example and who refuse to transform their lives. As it was mentioned about Joshua 6, this command to kill those who cause idolatry comes from the certainty that the faith of Israel is the most precious in the world: God’s chosen people cannot allow their faith to be contaminated by human errors for any price or under any circumstance.
13.1 A prophet may perform wonders: if it is to bring about separation from the Lord, he is a fraud. Does God want us to change our membership from one church to another in order to go where we think miracles are happening?
The text stresses that the word of God and his commandments are the only foundation of our faith: we do not believe because we have seen signs and wonders (Jn 4:46) but because God has spoken.
14.3 Another list of “clean” and “unclean” animals (see Lev 11).
22. In verses 22-29, we read about the tithes, that is, the tenth part of the crops to be offered to God. Deuteronomy makes this offering the foundation of a believer’s faith. Elsewhere in the Scriptures, the author will emphasize that “the just one has compassion, he gives and lends; and in the end, he owns the land” while “the unjust one borrows and does not repay and in the end, he is thrown out of the land” (Ps 37). The person who knows how to give does not squander: he is content with what he has and lacks nothing, while the one who refuses to give never has enough and never feels happy (Pro 11:24). See also 2 Corinthians 9:6.
The same spirit inspires Chapter 15 concerning the sabbatical year (see Lev 25:1).
15.7 It is painful for the author of the book to find that there are poor people on the land God gave to his children: did God not give all that was necessary for everyone? Yet, there are poor people and he asks believers to help them break out of this subhuman situation. It is not a question of giving them a piece of bread for today, but of loaning them what they need to begin again, to work the land of their ancestors and to earn a living with dignity. The Israelites know that debts are cancelled every seven years. Even with that, they will loan what is necessary.
16.1 What refers to the feasts is very similar to what is read in Leviticus 23. Notice the insistence on the obligation of celebrating this feast “at the place which the Lord has chosen” (v. 2), that is to say, in Jerusalem. Hence the pilgrimage of the Jews to Jerusalem, at least on the occasion of the Passover feast. Jesus himself will observe this law which applies to all males, from twelve years of age onwards (Lk 2:41). In several passages of the Gospel, we read: “Jesus went up to Jerusalem for the Feast” (Jn 2:13; 5:1).
17.14 Here we have references to the three institutions acknowledged by the Jews: kings, priests, and prophets.
Verses 14-20. The kings of Israel were negotiating with Egypt. In exchange for the horses they wished to purchase, they sent young Israelites to serve in the Pharaoh’s armies.
18.1 The Levite priests will have no share or inheritance. About the priests of the tribe of Levi, see the commentary on Numbers 3 and 4.
9. This text condemns magicians and fortune-tellers and then praises the true prophets.
God’s people live by the word of God, not only by the word found written in a book but by what God says through the prophets. There are some who receive a special gift from the Spirit to guide people and nations toward the real goals which God proposes to us.
You must have no fortune-tellers among you (vv. 10-11). Human beings have always been tempted to pierce through the mystery of their future: many soothsayers and false prophets have responded, as the authors of horoscopes do today, to this desire to snatch secrets from a God we distrust. But this is not the role of the prophets of Israel: their mission is to courageously proclaim what God demands today.
I shall raise up a prophet from their midst (v. 18). This “prophet” means the whole series of prophets who will continue to address Israel, as can be seen at the end of the paragraph (vv. 20-22). Yet, in the future, Israel was expecting a prophet greater than all others, a prophet who would lead the entire people, as well as Moses, had done. When John the Baptist appeared, some asked: “Are you the prophet?” (Jn 1:21), and Christians understood that Christ was “the Prophet” (see Acts 3:22).
19.1 The Israelites had a very strong sense of family solidarity and of revenge. When a person killed another person, even unintentionally, the family of the dead person had to kill the killer.
Here we see how God acts to educate his people. He could not directly attack such a deeply-rooted mentality. By designating cities of refuge for the person who killed someone unintentionally, the right to take justice into one’s own hands was at first limited, and with time it would disappear.
Verse 15. A single witness is not enough to condemn anyone. This principle is recalled in various parts of the New Testament as, for example, in the condemnation of Jesus.
24.5 We have here a series of laws promoting more human relations. This is the extent of the prophets’ preaching: in all aspects of social life to create among people a spirit of cooperation and kindness similar to the merciful attitude of God himself.
All of this was meant for a nation of farmers with a rather primitive economy; it would have to be adapted for our more sophisticated society. To each of these prescriptions correspond, in the same order, many other aspects of a truly human legislation:
– help to the newly married;
– job security;
– the fight against prostitution and the exploitation of immigrants;
– the provision of a minimum recompense for those fired and for the families of strikers;
– wages paid when due;
Then comes care for the abandoned. We cannot consider what we earn as exclusively ours. We have an obligation to observe the laws of social solidarity and to pay faithfully what they require. Now no longer are we able to limit our solidarity to a national plan: the richer countries must share with others that they have often ruined by their own development and the free exchange they have imposed on them.
26.1 My father was a wandering Aramean (v. 5). This paragraph is like a profession of faith for the Israelites. They know they were chosen from among pagan Arameans and that God, after liberating them, had given them the prosperity they were enjoying. Likewise, the various formulations of the “creed” which the Church now uses, place at the very center the liberating work that God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, realizes for our benefit.
27.1 In Chapters 27–28 we have the conclusion of “the discourse of Moses” which was found in Chapters 5–11.
Notice the ceremony for the renewal of the Covenant (vv. 4-26). It took place in Shechem, in the days of Joshua (Jos 8:32). The whole people promised to observe the ten commandments expressed here in the form of curses.
We know that this “discourse of Moses” was, in fact, written during the last days of the kingdom of Judah. At that time, it was enough to recall history to see the many misfortunes which had taken place because the people had not lived according to the way the Lord required. The blessings had not been many, nor had they lasted long. On the contrary, the cruelest situations described in this chapter had happened.
If you obey in truth the voice of the Lord, he shall raise you high above all the nations (28:1). The author is convinced that the people could follow all this and thus, find happiness. Yet, the conclusion is negative: in fact, Israel did not listen and would disobey to the extent of being lost. At the time when these pages were written, the prophet Jeremiah was much more pessimistic in saying that the First Covenant, with its promise of material happiness, was no longer valid. According to him, it is as difficult for people to stop sinning as it is to change the color of their skin (Jer 13:23).
Thus, the actual law was very good, but Israel could not observe it until God gave believers a new heart and a new spirit (see Jer 31:31).
28.1 We often ask a priest to bless or “baptize” a house, a boat, a piece of machinery, some new equipment. The word “to bless,” that is to say good things, combines different meanings:
– to give thanks to God from whom every good thing comes;
– to refer to the good that God thinks about this or that new acquisition or sign of progress; to describe all the benefits that can be derived from this house, this sewing machine, etc… for the human and spiritual development of a person or a group;
– to ask the Lord that we may use things according to his will; since it is the only way for us to obtain the good that may be expected from them.
The Lord shall make you a holy people… The Lord shall fill you… The Lord shall open the heavens for you… (vv. 9-12). Naturally, all of this is realized through the good use we make of things: we do not expect miracles. We do know that wonders can come through the poorest instruments.
29.1 This new discourse was written on the return from the Exile when, determined to be faithful to the law of the Lord from then on, the Jews began to rebuild their nation.
30.6 These commandments are neither too high nor too remote for you (v. 11): obedience to the will of God is the most natural way for those who are sincere. My word is very near you so that you can put it into practice (v. 14); yet, no one will do so until he has received the “circumcision of the heart.”
The Lord will circumcise your heart (v. 6), that is, he will make you pure and holy. See Ezekiel 36:26-27.
Few pages in the Scriptures emphasize so much and in such a persuasive way, the love of the Lord, a jealous love coming from his desire to make us happy: The Lord your God will circumcise your heart so that you may love him and live happily. The Lord will again be pleased to treat you well.
It is already in your mouth (v. 14). This means: You know it by heart.
15. This text about the two ways is very famous, reminding us of the importance of our free decisions and God’s respect for human freedom (see also Sir 15:11).
Throughout Deuteronomy, faithfulness to God is spoken of together with the remembrance of his promises and rewards here on earth. This should not surprise us. In those distant times, the people of God had no understanding of another life nor of the resurrection and the vision of God after death. They only focused on the present life and their national destiny which, in their view, were more important than the destiny of the individual. For them, God’s justice had to be seen on earth in the present.
Later, the Gospel will not promise lands or houses, except in a figurative way (Mk 10:28). Prosperity will not be mentioned except for the final day when God will create the world anew (Acts 3:21 and Rev 21:3).
31.1 The last chapters include several memories of Moses.
The hymn in Chapter 32 is a song to the constant love of the Lord who guides all of Israel’s history.
– The Lord chooses Israel (vv. 7-9).
– He leads Israel through the desert to the Promised Land (vv. 10-14).
– Israel, fully satisfied, shuns God and gives itself idols (vv. 15-18).
– The Lord becomes Israel’s enemy (vv. 22-30).
– The people, humbled and exiled, must rely on the compassion of the Lord who, in the end, will liberate them and make them victorious over the wicked (vv. 31-43).
He set up the boundaries for the people after the number of the sons of God (32:8). The sons of God are the angels responsible for the different nations, whereas the Lord personally takes care of Israel.
Like an eagle (32:11). This is an image of God looking after his people; no one will snatch them away from his protection.
32:15 summarizes Israel’s rebellious attitude.
Israel grew up well nourished (32:15). The prodigal son, after having received everything from his father, thinks that he will be freer by getting rid of him.
33.1 Moses’ blessings resemble Jacob’s in Genesis 49. We have here a poetic announcement of the future destiny of the twelve tribes but probably written much later, perhaps a short time before the captivity.
34.1 The book concludes with the death of Moses. There is something grandiose in this solitary end of the leader and founder of Israel. God had separated him from his people when he shared his secrets with him and gave him his own authority. Moses alone had to bear the responsibility and the burden of Israel before God, to the point of becoming identified with Israel.
No prophet like Moses has appeared again (v. 10). All our faith is affirmed in the revelation of the only God to Moses and in the election of Israel under his leadership. However, this does not mean that revelation ceased. Israel knows that no prophet has appeared though they continue to expect a prophet like him (18:15). This means that faith is not locked in the faithfulness to a book, even if such a book is the Old Testament. God’s people continued to discover the ways of God and the contemporaries of Jesus had to see in him the expected “Prophet.” As for us, our faith is also rooted in the faith of the Church and, with the Church, we discover everyday the teaching of the Spirit.